1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical sound generation device, a musical sound generation method, a musical sound generation program and an electronic instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electronic instruments and personal computers in recent years, musical sound generation methods using various sound source data (waveform data) have been adopted so as to actualize musical sounds having a higher degree of fidelity to the original sounds of wind instruments, stringed instruments, and the like. For example, in order to achieve a configuration where more pieces of waveform data of a longer time can be used, some software sound source that is operated on an electronic instrument or personal computer adopts a system in which waveform data not for use is stored in a (low-speed, large-capacity) storage device with a low access speed and a large storage capacity such as a flash memory or hard disk, and only waveform data for use is transferred to a (high-speed, small-capacity) storage device with a high access speed and a small storage capacity which is directly accessible from a sound source device, and read out in accordance with a musical performance for sound emission.
Here, generally speaking, high-speed, small-capacity storage devices have high product prices, and low-speed, large-capacity storage devices have low product prices. For this reason, waveform data having a data size larger than the storage capacity of a high-speed, small-capacity storage device is retained in a low-speed, large-capacity storage device, and is moved to the high-speed, small-capacity storage device only when needed for use in sound emission, whereby both of a favorable waveform data reading operation and a reduction in production cost are achieved. An example of a sound source device adopting this system is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 11-007281, in which a musical sound with a desired timbre is emitted by pieces of waveform data read out being synthesized.